Body Scrub-a-dub-dub

Howdy!

Is it just me, or does the warmer weather play havoc with your skin?  Mine tends to be kinda dry, flaky and sensitive at times anyway, no matter what the season, but lately even moisturising daily hasn't helped!  So I realised that maybe I need to tackle the skin problem more head-on and address the scrubbing action...

I have a few scrubs in the bathroom, but they're commercial ones that have been gifted by friends and family and they just don't seem to be very effective.  I wonder if it's the amount of chemicals that go into them - that many can't be good for you!  I figured that I'd have a go at making my own, and the results are fab - even after 1 use my skin already feels smoother and more nourished, so I think this one's a winner!

As for the recipe, well I apologise for not having exact measurements but I was doing it based on "feel".  But I used ground rice for the scrubbing action, sweet almond oil and honey for the nourishment, and some drops of bergamot, frankincense and juniper berry for their known skin properties & yummy smell.

First, I poured some of the ground rice into a tub (was around 70-75g), then added about a tablespoon of sweet almond oil - just enough to mix it to a fine paste, without being too dry & clumpy or too wet and oily.  Then I added about a tablespoon of honey to stiffen it up a bit and add a bit more texture.  This mixture weighed in at 110g total.

I wanted to make a standard 2% strength aromatherapy mix, as my intention was to use it as an all-over body scrub (avoiding the face - ground rice is a bit too tough for the face) so I calculated that I needed 22 drops of oils in total.  So from those 22 drops, 12 were bergamot, 3 were juniper berry and 7 were frankincense (I always use more bergamot than any other oil for the simple reason that it has a weaker aroma and can easily be drowned out by some others).

I've experimented in the past with oats and things for scrubs, but they tend to be too "bitty" for me and leave a ton of residue in the bath/shower afterwards, whereas I didn't really notice anything left behind with this one...

Edit:  I should add that anyone who wants to use this recipe should be wary about sun exposure (that includes sunbeds) after use - bergamot is known to cause sensitivity to UV rays so I would avoid sunbathing immediately afterwards.